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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Secret Admirer (1985)

One of my faaaavorite 80's movie is Secret Admirer with C. Thomas Howell, Kelly, Preston, Lori Loughlin, Dee Wallace, and more! So I diligently researched to find as many locations as I could. It seemed like Burbank was the place where a lot of the movie was shot....

Here is the Burbank High School area, which has changed the most, so I didn't even bother putting up a pic, but here is the area where the van pulls up and they leave Lori Loughlin in the dust...

Screenshots...

Comparison...

Also in Burbank is Lori Loughlin's house... where she has the big party, tell C. Thomas to go away at her door, and of course where her parents drive off to take her to school afloat....

Screenshots...

Comparison...

Also in Burbank and not too far from Lori's house is the corner where C. Thomas Howell is running after Lori and he bumps into "Steve" where they fight and he breaks his nose...

Screenshots...

Comparisons....

The party house is up in Hollywood and is best known for it's appearance during the opening of "Rebel Without A Cause". Screenshots to come later...

Comparisons....

I searched all over Burbank for Kelly Preston's house in the movie and could not find it. While I was looking for another location in the Hollywood area, I just happened to come across it! The house has changed a bit, particularly a new brick facade that makes it look a lot nicer than it did in the movie....

I love that the stained glass door is still the same!

Screenshots...

Comparison....

And finally is C. Thomas Howell's house which is pretty unique looking. Like Kelly Preston's house, I searched all over Burbank looking for this. I finally got a small hint in one single frame where I could see a piece of the twin towers in Century City and by the angle of the buildings, tracked it down. It looks virtually the same, but the overgrown greenery hides a lot of the house now.... (Update, after meeting writer/director David Greenwalt, I found out he grew up in this house!)

21 comments:

OOOH I randomly came upon your blog when I was googling where to find C. Thomas Howell's house haha! I love this super in depth post you did about this awesome movie! :) Also speaking of houses in movies, one of my good friend's grandparents actually live in the house from Pulp Fiction where Bruce Willis' character lived as a kid...the scene with Christopher Walken was apparently filmed in the basement den! I always thought that was so cool :)

I love this movie. I watched it recently on AMC from beginning to end by accident. once I started watching it I couldn't stop. I now am a big fan of this movie. I appreciate the time you spent on finding these houses and showing us the pictures. sounds like a great hobby keep up the good work.

Hi Robert! Great work you've done on this wonderful movie! I'm searching for the "make out" location too. Do you have any idea? I'm not resident in LA, so my search is based on googlemap. In the movie, it's called "Kough Park". Overlooking Burbank is Stough Park. Could this really be a coincident? However, I can't find any spot that matches... Any help you can give me would be much appreciated! Eric S.

I discovered Secret Admirer during a free HBO weekend during it's first run in the mid 1980's. We didn't have HBO back then so when they had the free weekends I would put a tape in the VCR and record everything even waking up in the middle of the night when I heard the VCR shut off to change to another tape! lol I honestly don't recall anything else that I taped but I recall Secret Admirer. Later I bought the VHS release and several years ago I bought the DVD. One of the most overlooked movies in my opinion. Thanks for your hard work in finding the locations!

I grew up a block away on same street from "Kelly Preston's" house (no where near Burbank and south of Hollywood) and watched them film Secret Admirer there. I knew the home owners but don't know if they are still there. Quite a few houses on that street are listed with agents including mine as back in the day filming was very,very common.

I remember when I watched this movie for the first time was quite a child, by her early 90s, after that reviewed the movie several times in my teens, I found the film very entertaining. Ha two months ago I decided to revisit the film again and I could see the film with another viewpoint, which in addition to entertaining, he spends a magical aura that few films have. I'm glad to know there are others like me who are fans of this true classic. Congratulations on your work!

I was watching "Secret Admirer" today, and in one scene C. Thomas Howell's and Kelly Preston's characters (it's shot from distance, so we can't tell whether it's really them) drive past a store front with the sign: "Tony's TV Service And Soccer Supplies". I was like "WTF!?!". It was even more 80's than I remember the 80's being. TV service and soccer supplies??? It's like beyond maximum eighties, like it was so blatantly 80's that it just broke the entire concept of the 80's. It was clearly a real store. Not only did it look real, but who in God's name would make something like that up. Anyway, do you know anything about where that scene was filmed? Thanks!

Awesome Movie one of my all time favorites I want to look up all the locations for Tuff Turf love that movie also Secret Admirer and Tuff Turf are my top 2 80s of all time just want to say thank you for doing this for us really appreciate it oh yeah how can I forget about Fast times at Ridgemont high.